Booher: Parkview makes a statement with signees

So maybe Big Time U, Big Bad State and whatever college you love got a few blue-chippers and other talents off the showroom floor. Good for them. They deserve all the attention. They really do.

But National Signing Day for college football isn't always about them.

Watch ESPN or follow Twitter too long and you overlook the little guys, the overachievers from high school teams that historically have spent Friday nights beating their collective head against a wall more than beating the enemy on the other sideline.

Which brings me to the Parkview Vikings. Yes, Parkview.

Got a problem with that?

Because you shouldn't. No, give the Vikings a standing O.

As recently as 2008, or only six seasons ago, Parkview football suffered its 58th consecutive loss.

This week, the team is celebrating something that you wouldn't have thought possible back then - four players are signing letters of intent on the same day.

That is, four guys who represent an inspiring turnaround, including three who, from the middle school practice field, stared right back at that losing streak and didn't blink.

"It's not all about the winning," said defensive bank Danny Johnson, among the group at Jarrett Middle School back in the day. "It's all about having fun and being with friends. I just liked stepping on the field, working hard all week and doing our thing."

Hey, after hearing that, don't rush to his history class and hug Johnson just yet. There's more good stuff, and we'll get to it.

No, none of those schools have budgets like Alabama football or Argentina. But does it matter?

These guys paid the price, Johnson being Exhibit A. He wasn't even a starter a couple of years ago, played junior varsity and bided his time. Oh, and in the offseason? He's saving up for college by cleaning the gym and cafeteria at a local Boys and Girls Club. A part-time job.

Now he and four teammates are getting some of their education paid for. And hopefully any teen out there - athlete, theater hopeful, band member, anybody - read this next quote.

"It shows the young guys," Rohrbaugh said, "that it's not impossible to do what you want to do."

Dang right.

Of course, it also takes leadership.

So make sure to direct your applause, too, to former Parkview coach Wes Beachler (now at Republic) and current coach Anthony Hays.

Beachler turned the program in the right direction, leading Parkview to the Class 5 state playoffs in 2010 - some 15 years after the Vikings' last playoff appearance and only two years after the losing streak ended.

But since his departure after the 2010 season, it's been Hays' baby, and the former Tulsa Union grad built the roster last year to 70 players, about 20 more than his first year.

Oh, those first two years with Hays were something, Johnson noted. All the team practiced was tackling and pass coverage.

But look at the results: This past season, the Vikings allowed only one passing touchdown, and this after Parkview finished 8-3 in 2012, when the Vikings fell one win shy of reaching the Class 5 state quarterfinals.

Put another way, it was proof that players on those Jarrett Middle School teams had something in them. A little John Wayne grit perhaps.

"We knew we were going to go to Parkview and play all four years," Johnson said of him, Rohrbaugh and Downey. "We'd be practicing, look over at (the varsity) and say, 'That's going to be us one day. But we're going to be better.' "

Sure enough, they made it better.

When school resumes this week after the snow cancellations, Parkview will host a signing ceremony.

Think about that for a second. Hays had never held a signing ceremony before.

"In the last three years," said Gilliland, who transferred from Glendale in 2012, "I think everybody's mindset changed."

"Over the summers, we lifted and all that," Downey explained. "But you still had your dead periods and times when coaches can't be there with you. So you've got to get motivated. We'd go to Fitness 19 just around the corner from Parkview. We just wanted Parkview to be motivated."

The question now is what's next? The bar has been raised. But that says a lot, all positive, about Parkview football.

"I know when we leave," Rohrbaugh said, "there will be leadership lost. But I hope they can come up with that and win some games next year."